Arabic version: التضخم يتجاوز نمو الأجور في الولايات المتحدة مجدداً

According to Cnbc, inflation is again rising faster than wages in the United States, reducing workers’ purchasing power and increasing pressure on household budgets.

Consumer prices increased 3.4% in August from a year earlier, based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday. Average hourly earnings rose 3.1% over the same period in a separate BLS report. Real average hourly earnings, adjusted for inflation, declined 0.1% from July and fell 0.3% year over year in August.

Heather Long, chief economist at Navy Federal Credit Union, said April marked a turning point after a period in which wage growth had generally exceeded inflation. From May 2023 until about April of this year, workers had been slowly regaining ground, but higher energy costs reversed that progress.

Gasoline prices rose 3.9% in August alone and accounted for more than one-third of the consumer price index’s gain. Diesel reached $6 per gallon on Friday for the first time as fuel supply disruptions arose from wars in Iran and Ukraine. Navy Federal previously estimated that gasoline prices jumped 21% in March, helping push its measure of car ownership costs to a record.

The pressure is also affecting spending patterns. YouGov data shows higher-income shoppers are more likely to buy groceries at Costco, while Walmart Supercenter is the preferred grocery store for middle- to lower-income households. Navy Federal’s internal spending data, covering about 15 million members, also shows a shift toward warehouse and discount stores as households seek to stretch their budgets.